“We noticed this especially in the increasing mildness of the
winters,which became more and
more striking between 1900 and 1939, and surprisingly a series of three
severe winters followed”, recalled
M. Rodewald few years after the
winter 1939/40 had taken reign (Rodewald,
1948). That was widely anticipated, but the term “severe winter” is
rather abstract in order to realize the scope and intensity of the
situation.

Temperature is certainly the most important
feature of winter, and it will receive the bulk of attention when talking
about records. But there are other parameters as well, which should be
taken into account when analysing a severe winter and trying to identify
the role man played for this to occur. Before looking more deeply into
this aspect, in the following sections, a brief overview of some
temperature and weather observations made during the first winter in WWII
will be discussed.

b. Temperature

General Frost served
Europe
with three cold events of considerable intensity during the winter
1939/40. From a meteorological point of view, there was a fourth cold wave
in the first half of March 1940, which can, at least partially, be
attributed to the excessive sea ice cover in the Baltic. Presumably, the
most stunning was the arrival of the third wave in mid February, which has
already been mentioned in the pervious section (C1), and which resulted in
temperatures of 9°C to 10°C below mean,
across the region between Hamburg and Warsaw, see Fig. C2-2, p. 49

Fig. C2-1; Vilnius winter T°C, 1880-2005

December
1939:All
in all, December cannot be regarded as spectacular, at least not in
Western and
Central Europe
.

__In
Great Britain
the winter started off mildly, but it became cooler during the first
fortnight of December. The first cold spell came during the latter half of
December 1939.

__On
the German coast of the
North Sea
the first sea ice appeared around December 17 and remained there until the
end of the winter.

__In
the last week of the year the temperatures varied strongly at many German
stations, but dropped considerably during some nights, for example on
December 29th:
Aachen
, -8°C;
Karlsruhe
, –18°C;
Hanover
, -14°C; and
Berlin
–13°C.

A
very severe temperature drama took place in
Finland
where the
Soviet Union
had been at war since November 30th 1939. The so called
“winter war” is subject in a special section, as there exist many
newspaper reports showing that in the second half of December extreme low
temperatures had already been recorded. Presumably not all of them are
correct, and some may be propaganda for whatsoever reasons. This could
also be true in the following unbelievable story of war dramatics, but as
it was written by a NYT correspondent and published by the New York Times
on December 25th, one should listen critically what he had to
report (excerpt), until proven as a lie:

December
24th1939:
Report by James Aldridge: “The cold numbs the brain in this Arctic hell,
snow sweeps over the darkened wastes, the winds howl and the temperature
is 30 degrees below zero (minus 34.4° C). Here the Russians and Finns are
battling in blinding snowstorms for possession of ice-covered forests.
…I reached the spot just after the battle ended. It was the most
horrible sight I had ever seen. As if the men had been suddenly turned to
wax, there were two or three thousand Russians and a few Finns, all frozen
in fighting attitudes. Some were locked together, their bayonets within
each other’s bodies; some were frozen in half-standing positions; some
were crouching with their arms crooked, holding the hand grenades they
were throwing; some were lying with their rifles shouldered, their legs
apart….Their fear was registered on the frozen faces. Their bodies were
like statues of men throwing all their muscles and strength into some work,
but their faces recorded something between bewilderment and horror.” (NYT,
December 25 , 1939).

On the night of the 23rd, a minimum of -23.3C was
recorded at Rhaydaer(Powys) a record low for that date. Other lows
include -20C at
Canterbury
, Welshpool,
Hereford
and
Newport
in
Shropshire
.
Moscow
measured as lowest −42.2 °C (−44.0 °F).

But
as records are only one side of the picture, a brief list of
selected events reported by the New York Times,NYT, if not otherwise indicated, is herewith produced.
__ January 01: All navigation on
Danube
stopped owing to ice (Frankcom, 1940).
__ January 08: Record frost in Northern and
Central Russia
, -35°C/-31°F.
__ January 11:
Rumania
, -40°C/-40°F.
__ January 11: Sea freezing in the Black Sea near
Odessa
.
__ January 11:
Berlin
, -20°C/-4°F.
__ January 11: Riga –41°C/; Budapest –26°C;Vienna –25°C,
Sofia –22°C (Neue Zürcher Zeitung, NZZ, Jan. 11.)
__ January 13:
Soviet Union
extreme cold, Don Region –38°C (NZZ, 14. Jan).
__ January 13:
Riga
, the bitterest cold wave for years (-40°F).
__ January 15:
Warsaw
–40°C/-40°F.
__ January 17: Cold paralyses
Northern Europe
.
Riga
said that the temperature was at freezing point on Monday morning (January
15) and yesterday morning at 22 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. Then
it tumbled to 47.2 degrees below zero – a drop of 79.2 degrees in
about thirty-six hours.(NYT,
Jan 18). Cont/

January 1940:
The cold that made the winter special showed up in January 1940.
Many things happened of which only few can be mentioned. There was
for example the all time record for
Poland
with −41.0 °C /−41.8 °F at Siedlce, Województwo
Mazowieckie, on January 11th 1940. Two weeks later
England
cought up with the cold.

__
January 17:
Copenhagen
–26°C/-15°F
__ January 17:
Moscow
in the morning –45°C/-49°F.
__ January 17: Sella/Finland, above the
Arctic Circle
–48°C/-54°F; also Viborg.
__ January 21:
Moscow
–45°C/-49°F.
__ January 21: Rhayader/Wales/UK –23°C.
__ January 22: Severe snow storm swept Europe from the
Arctic
Sea
to
Scandinavia
.
__ January 26: NYT-headline: ‘Cold Greater Foe than the Germans
for French Army in Front Lines.Most Severe Winter in Generations…’
__ January 28: In the close vicinity of
London
the river
Thames
has frozen for the first time since 1814.(Neue
Zürcher Zeitung, Jan. 29)
__ January 29: ‚Icy Storm hits
Britain
,
London
has Heavy Snow’.
__ January 31:(
UK
) Newspapers permitted to publish the first details of the blizzard,
called it the coldest weather in a century.

Moscow - Last but not least: It
is to note that the coldest January ever recorded in
Moscow
is January 1940, during which also the lowest ever recorded
temperature was observed with: −42.2 °C (−44.0 °F)(source: wikipedia/Climate of
Moscow
).

Fig. C-3; Mid February low T°C

February 1940.
Great Britain
was released from the arctic grip during the first days of February,
whereas the continent remained governed by General Frost, as
illustrated by a few examples selected from many NYT reports:
__ February 13;
Amsterdam
.
Europe
suffered tonight in the paralyzing grip of the bitterest cold in
more than 100 years. (NYT, Feb. 14, 1940)
__ February 13;
Copenhagen
. The temperature has dropped to 13 degrees below zero Fahrenheit
(-25°C). (NYT, Feb. 14, 1940).
__ February 13; Baltic countries. In
Estonia
,
Latvia
and
Lithuania
more than 10,000 persons suffered severe frostbite. At least five
persons froze to death in the three Baltic countries, where
temperatures reached 54 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (- 47.7°C)
recently for the first time in 160 years (NYT, Feb. 14, 1940).
__ February 20, 1940; In
Sweden
all cold records were broken in the last twenty-four hours with 32
degrees below zero Fahrenheit (-35.5°C), the coldest since 1805.
The previous record in
Stockholm
was 22 F degrees below zero.
Copenhagen
tonight 2 degrees above zero Fahrenheit. (NYT, Feb. 21, 1940).

Fig.
C2-4, T°C deviations in Feb.1940

c. More remarkable weather events

Too little and too much rain.
The war started with a very annoying lack of rain for
Poland
, which the military had expected to defend their country against the
German invaders because of mud and impassable roads. Instead, it rained
heavily in Western Europe, from
Wales
in the
UK
to
Bavaria
and
Austria
at a number of stations above average by 200% in September, and sometimes
300% in October and November. Also the USA experienced contrasts between
heavy rain and high dryness (see TM5, p. 59), which raises the question,
whether a too dry Northern Hemisphere paved the way for General Frost to
increase his influence in regions outside the Arctic during the
forthcoming winter. More details in a later section.

A shift of wind over northwestern Europe. In autumn there was a great wind shift from usually
south-west to north-west, which resulted for England in a mean wind
direction from the north-east quarter for the entire winter 1939/40, the
only one of three since 1814 (more at: C5).

Blocking of the west-wind-drift.
One of the decisive parameters of the weather conditions in the autumn of
1939 was the extensive blocking of circulation of Atlantic moist air (cyclones)
via western and central
Europe
eastwards. At the end of October 1939 the analyst of the German weather
service “Seewarte” came to the conclusion (on November 2nd
, 1939) that:

“The
current reports have pointed out a number of times that the west wind
drift (WWD) in the moderate latitudes is very low this year or is almost
completely lacking over
Europe
.”

It
was not the first time that the daily weather analysis had given an
indication about the weakness of the WWD in autumn 1939. This was, in
close relation to other weather events, a strong indicator of the
involvement of war in general, and of naval war in particular, in the
running of atmospheric processes, and will receive further attention (more:
C5).

The cold arrived in
Dresden
on December 6th , 1939 – An example. At Dresden there was massive snowfall between
December 6 and 8, depositing snow up to a height of 25 cm (corresponding
to a melted water amount of 50 liters per m²) after 36 hours of
uninterrupted snowfall and a temperature drop to -7° C. Few weeks later
Dresden recorded the coldest January in 112 years (Naegler,
1940), but it may have been even longer; as the records had only been made
since 1828.

The drama under the Polar Circle.
It is presumably one of the best documented WWII events in Europe, the so
called “winter war” between the Soviet Union and
Finland
from November 30th, 1939 to March 12th, 1940, at the
excellent website: http://www.winterwar.com/, including a detailed
meteorological history. The
Karelian Isthmus
experienced a record low temperature of −43 °C (−45 °F)
on January 1, 1940 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War). The military
clash was murderous, most of the time under a dark sky, and with hardly
any sunshine. Fighting cost the Russians about 125,000 men, plus 264,908
wounded, and they lost more than 2,000 tanks and numerous other war
machinery. When it all started the extreme winter had already been
advancing, but it is unlikely that the “winter war” did not also
contribute to that, and so did naval warfare waged in the Eastern Baltic.
The clash in the north needs a more detailed presentation. (see below:
C6).

Headline to a brief text in NYT (Jan. 19) -
Europe
in mid-January 1940. “Cold
relaxes its grip on
North Europe
. Only
Finland
still suffers in 58-below-zero weather, a 60-year cold spell. Schools in
the Reich closed. Low temperatures, sleet and snow in
Portugal
,
Spain
and northern
Italy
.

London
, January 27, 1940. A blizzard raged over the
British Isles
last Saturday (January 27)[1].
Newspapers permitted publishing the first details of the blizzard, called
it the coldest weather in a century. (NYT, Feb. 1st.). On Jan.
28 the NYT titled the event:

“British Cold Snap Can Now Be Told. Military Censorship on
the Weather Lifted – Freeze Severest Since 1894. 7-Degrees Low in
London
. Press Has Noted Subzero Spell in
Europe
without a word of Arctic conditions locally.”

__Ice-storm. The duration of the storm was remarkable lasting up to 48
hours in some places. For instance at Cirencester, 48 hours of freezing
rain fell in temperatures of between -2° and -4°C. This is an
exceptional event in the
UK
, and that of 1940 is reckoned to be the severest that has struck the
UK
in recorded history. It is also claimed that the harbors in Southampton
and Folkestone were frozen, as well as the
Grand
Union
Canal
between
Birmingham
and
London
.

In
close vicinity of
London
the river
Thames
has frozen for the first time since 1814.(Neue Zürcher Zeitung, January 29,
1940).

d. Conclusion

The
brief chronicle illustrates for what Adolf Hitler and his consorts should
be held responsible. The extreme conditions were not mere ‘natural
variations’ but a special force must have goten upper hand:
Unfortunately the weather services did not see anything, they ignored any
signs, and demonstrated how little they understood about the mechanisms
that drive weather. Even during war time, this ignorance is difficult to
accept. Most of the referred data were published by the newspapers often
within one or two days. These data may not always represent the correct
figures, but they did draw a fairly correct picture about the stunning
winter story. The New York Times is a miracle in this respect, and it is
not only outstanding to read, but a very rich and valuable source of
historical weather research. The marvelous job The New York Times did,
cannot be appreciated highly enough. Their reporting was outstanding,
excellent, comprehensive, detailed and prompt.

[1]A
short summary is available at:
http://www.ukweatherworld.co.uk/forum/index.php?/topic/49321-the-severe-winter-of-1939-40-a-special-report/;
andhttp://forum.netweather.tv/topic/33839-the-severe-winter-of-1939-40/